Office's health policies should go beyond sick days

I'm not talking about whether you offer health insurance or how many sick days your employees are entitled to. I'm talking, pure and simple, about how you handle your employees' health.

As I write this, there is a television commercial in heavy rotation describing the ideal employee as the one who never takes a day off; the secret to her perfect attendance is revealed to be a certain brand of cold-relief pills.

Does your corporate culture foster the expectation that people will come to work except in case of their own demise? Or do you acknowledge that the employee who comes to work sick is doing the company no favors? Sure, she may have taken the magic remedy to quell her symptoms, but if she's still contagious, she's infecting the rest of the staff through her misguided dedication. Simply put, one employee taking two days off with the flu is two days of lost productivity; one employee introducing those germs to the entire staff can cause an epidemic resulting in dozens of days of reduced productivity.

Even if the germ-carrier spends the day in her own office with the door closed to avoid face-to-face contact with other employees, viruses can live for several days on surfaces in the common areas, such as doorknobs, elevator buttons, restroom faucets, or anything else she touches. If she dictates something, her secretary will pick up germs while inserting the tape in the Dictaphone. If she signs something, the copy clerk will pick up the germs while putting the letter in the copier, and the mail clerk will pick up the germs from the envelope flap that was in momentary contact with the germladen letter. The cleaning crew will pick up the germs when they empty her tissue-filled wastebasket, as will anyone who touches the dishwasher after she puts her contaminated teacup in.

Professional vs. productive

As a matter of personal experience, I have worked in offices which encouraged employees to crawl in from their deathbeds, and I have worked in offices which provided onsite flu shot clinics and reminded employees that red noses and bleary eyes do not present a professional picture to the clients. It should be no surprise that under the former corporate philosophy most of the staff was sick most of the winter, reducing productivity and profits. Under the latter philosophy, the staff operated at peak efficiency all through flu season; anyone who tried to come in sick was sent home as soon as the condition was noticed. As contrary to logic as it may seem, taking time off increased overall productivity.

Despite boundless proof that airborne gases and fumes can cause serious employee health problems, office carpets are rarely allowed to "outgas" completely before the employees move in. It's not uncommon for a newly constructed office to be staffed - literally as soon as the paint dries. In small doses, fames and gases may cause headaches, grogginess, and burning eyes; in larger doses, or repeated exposures, there can be long-term damage to the internal organs and central nervous system. If management isn't also affected by the symptoms, employees who complain may be thought of as goldbricks and ordered back to their desks instead of being allowed to go home to detoxify their systems.

Sick building syndrome

Although short-term exposure, called Sick Building Syndrome, is usually reversible by removing the employees from the toxic workplace, some people have had to take permanent disability after developing multiple chemical sensitivities (MCS) due to repeated exposures to workplace gases; originally, MCS affected primarily those who worked with chemicals (such as pesticide applicators), but as more synthetic items (e.g., pressboard desks instead of natural wood; polyester carpet instead of natural wool) and chemicals (such as toner) find their way into offices, more office workers are also failing victim. As many as 6 percent of the population may be severely affected by MCS.

Numerous studies have been done over the years about ergonomics, but all the studies in the world won't help if management's philosophy is "put up and shut up." In an office that was built to my employer's specifications, more than half the support staff had lights shining directly on their computer screens (bad for vision), or HVAC vents directly over their chairs (not only are drafts bad for physical health, but also for mental health when the A/C kicks on and blows carefully sorted papers around); quite a few cubicles had both problems. When several secretaries instructed maintenance to leave burned-out, fluorescent bulbs that had reflected on the computer screens, management overruled them: ergonomics be damned, burned-out bulbs looked shoddy. The same "appearances are everything" philosophy applied to putting cardboard up to re-direct the vents off the staff's necks and shoulders.

A recent study at Chiba University in Japan revealed that spending more than five hours a day working on the computer tends to cause health problems, including headache, eyestrain, joint pain, and stiff shoulders, as well as lethargy, anxiety, and sleep disorders. That's good to know, but Dr. Tetsuya Nakazawa will have wasted several years of research if employers don't take steps to ensure that no employee spends more than five hours a day working at the computer.

In a production-oriented environment where secretaries are scolded for wasting time when they take their doctors' advice to stop typing for five minutes each hour to stretch to avoid carpal-tunnel syndrome, hopes aren't high that they'd be encouraged by their employers to stop typing completely after five hours, to perform other tasks the rest of the day. Secretaries, the philosophy goes, are replaceable if they become disabled, but time is money.

Wrong emphasis

If that sounds like something from the feudal era, you're right. The emphasis, in these so-called enlightened times, is still on the bottom line and not on the people who make the bottom line possible.

Unfortunately for employers, litigation by injured or healthcompromised employees can be costly, even if you win. If you lose, the cost of pressuring employees to produce no matter what can be staggering - tens of thousands of dollars of medical expenses and decades of expected wages for an employee who will never work again.

For the benefit of your company, encourage employees to stay home when they're sick. Keep up on ergonomic studies and implement the changes they recommend, even if they seem expensive. Nothing is more expensive than seeing your company name in a front-page headline as the defendant in a lawsuit for injuries to employees.

Copyright Central New York Business Journal Jan 17, 2003
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved